KERRY County Council's claim that it can't resurface one of Killorglin's main car parks because of a right-of-way issue is nothing more than an excuse for not carrying out the urgently needed work, according to local councillor Damian Quigg.

KERRY County Council's claim that it can't resurface one of Killorglin's main car parks because of a right-of-way issue is nothing more than an excuse for not carrying out the urgently needed work, according to local councillor Damian Quigg.

The Old Mill car park in the town is in a very poor state of repair but the Council is citing a right-of-way issue for its failure to carry out a full resurfacing, according to Cllr Quigg who raised the issue at the recent South and West Kerry Municipal District meeting.

"I was told the council could not resurface the car park because of this access issue, which is an excuse I feel they are simply using to stall the ball. They were quite happy to go in there recently and repair some of the potholes, despite the access problem they informed me about at the recent meeting, which was the first I had ever heard of it," he said.

The Old Mill car park is one of the town's largest and is used by hundreds of motorists each week and locals are keen to see it upgraded ahead of the massive influx of visitors for Puck Fair next month.

"It's also a huge issue for the local Tidy Towns who contacted me about it. Last year, the state of the car park was cited by national judges in their adjudication report as having impacted Killorglin's performance and this is simply not good enough given the incredible work the local committee is carrying out," said Cllr Quigg.

He added that the local Tidy Towns had completely transformed the area around the car park in recent years in a project that included the installation of a river walk along the banks of the Laune complete with picnic benches amid other cosmetic works.

"The state of the car park is detracting from all of that and needs to be addressed immediately," he said, adding that he is willing to pledge part of his own councillor allocation for local projects towards the scheme if needs be.

"I'm not going to give up on this until it is resurfaced and I'm happy to put some of my council allocation towards it if that is what it takes. Maybe if I and the other local councillors did this then the council might meet us halfway with funding and get the job done," he said.